Thursday, August 18, 2016

How big of a jaw? That was the question I wrestled with during the character design phase for Gaston. I had preferred a more caricatured, villain looking version with a big jaw. When I was asked to go into a different direction and "beautify" Gaston, I drew the following portraits in protest, almost angry. I was thinking: Is this what you want? You can't be serious. TV soap opera looks for a Disney villain?

This type of a design will only result in stiff, lifeless animation.

So I continued doodling poses that still showed some oomph, some physicality that would help me to get a hold of the character.

One of the animators from Team Gaston was Joe Haidar, who did some terrific work on the character. He just sent me an image of a drawing I gave him way back.

These are clean up drawings (by the talented Kathy Bailey) based on my animation. As you can see, I am fighting to invent entertaining expressions while trying to keep this dude handsome at the same time.

More of Kathy's work over my roughs.

These are thumbnail sketches for a scene during "Gaston's proposal". Here he is referring to what kind of children he and Belle are going to have.

"We'll have six or seven." Belle: "Dogs?" "No Belle, strapping boys like me!"

I drew these poses off a TV monitor while I was studying the live action reference.

What a challenge this character was. A villain who does't look, but acts like one. An unusual but interesting concept.